Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about residency.

I ask Senator Higgins to take on board the point that Mr. Charlie McCreevy, when Minister for Finance, cut the rate of capital gains tax from 40% to 20%. By doing so, even at that stage, when tax rates were not as high as they were after the economic crisis, he quintupled the yield from the tax. One could say, if one wanted to be theoretical or ideological about it, that those making a very large capital gain should pay just as much as their secretaries or personal assistants on relatively modest salaries, or at least as much as they do in terms of marginal earnings since they are better off in that financial year on that basis. The bottom line, however, is that the Exchequer yield went up by 500%. All of the additional money was available to be spent by way of redistribution. Having said what I said about citizens and not escaping completely the obligations of citizenship by becoming non-resident for tax purposes, I believe the yardstick we should apply to questions such as this is not an ideological one but a pragmatic one. Forgetting about patriotism, if it is the judgment of those who study these things minutely and interact with foreign investors in Ireland that the total yield to the Irish Exchequer will increase by offering the kind of relief in question. Anybody who suggests it is immoral or unprincipled should ask what might be done to get the money from the particular company in a way that would finance extra hours for home helps and the like at the end of the year. That is the bottom line.